Chanticleer

What we learnt: NAB’s plunge could be the start of the bank correction

Investors have been trying to figure out what would cause surging banks to come back to earth. We may have just found the catalyst.

Feb 19, 2025 – 1.17pm

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The big result | For months, bank analysts have been wondering what might cause Australia’s runaway bank shares to come back to earth.

Would it be a surge in unemployment that led to a spike in bad debts? Some sort of blow up in commercial property loan books, which has been the most common cause of banking pain in the past century? Or would there be some sort of tail risk that none of us saw coming – a scandal, perhaps, or a crippling cyberattack?

James Thomson is senior Chanticleer columnist based in Melbourne. He was the Companies editor and editor of BRW Magazine.

Anthony Macdonald is a Chanticleer columnist. He is a former Street Talk co-editor and has 10 years' experience as a business journalist and worked at PwC, auditing and advising financial services companies.